Memory as Prowess

[Jed O'Connor]

     I meant also to mention that prodigious memory is, was, and always has 
been recognized as a form of prowess not only among storytellers (especially 
in preliterate/barely literate societies--like us? ;-} ) but also among 
public speakers in the classical era and every era since. Cicero wrote one 
of many treatises on the subject of memory that was the foundation for 
chapters in  numerous medieval and renaissance rhetoric texts. Knowledge is 
power only if you can access it, and the key to that (at least prior to a 
pentium chip and a good database) is the human faculty of memory honed to 
its finest edge.

The value of memory, especially of interesting, informative, aesthetic and 
entertaining material such as bardic lore consisted of cannot be 
overestimated in the time before cheap printing and the surfeit all forms of 
broadcast and canned entertainment good and bad such as we drown in now. 
(Find the embedded pun if you can!)

--Jed